White mountain electric ice cream freezer motor stalled early

[Roger Feeley]

I’m bummed.
we took out our ice cream freezer after at least ten years in the basement and the motor struggled and stalled too soon. It’s supposed to stall when the ice cream gets to the soft serve stage but this was a lot earlier than that.

Im thinking that the motor is just weak. These thing are crazy expensive now so I want to take a crack at fixing it. I’ve never worked on an electric motor before. Suggestions?

I should add that it was over 90 degrees in the shade and humid. I was sure glad I wasn’t cranking. Hmmm.. on the other hand, if I had a hand crank machine, I could use a big slow right angle drill.....

[Bill Dufour]

Dried out bearings and grease in the gearbox? I would run it empty for a few minutes to get the lube moving
Bill D

[Roger Feeley]

I took the gearbox apart and it all looks good. I’m going to give it another try. But I’m going to run it for a while without a load. I see some sparking around the brushes and I wonder if there is good contact.

[Roger Feeley]

Query: Could a semi-bad connection lead to an early shutdown? These moms are designed to stall out and then there’s some sort of thermal protection. The motor seemed to run fine but stalled early like there was less torque than there should be.

thats why I’m thinking that just running it for a half hour might restore the connection.

[Jim Koepke]

I see some sparking around the brushes and I wonder if there is good contact.

It could be the brushes are worn and need replacement.

Do the contacts on the motor armature look smooth?

Often the contacts (commutator) can become scratched or dirty and do not provide full contact which equates with lost power output. Sometimes pieces of the commutator get stuck in between contacts, shorting them out and reducing power output.

Are the bearings for the motor accessible? My motor repairs usually include checking the motor shaft for wear and scratches and adding a drop of light oil to the bronze bushings.

jtk

[Roger Feeley]

The freezer has not been used much so wear hold the be a factor.
the bearings might be accessible f I take it apart. If I do that are parts likely to fly all over the place?

[Jim Koepke]

The freezer has not been used much so wear hold the be a factor.
the bearings might be accessible f I take it apart. If I do that are parts likely to fly all over the place?

Most motors do not have a lot of springs or other things to go boy-oy-io-oing when disassembled. If the motor can be separated from the gearbox a simple spin of the shaft should indicate if it is sticky or grinding metal. The shaft should spin, not wiggle.

jtk

[Dave Lehnert]

Are you sure a piece of ice or clump of rock salt did not get jammed? Had that happen a time or two.

[Larry Frank]

My ice cream maker died this year after MANY years. The best we can figure is that it is 30+ years old. It was purchased at Montgomery Wards and made ice cream every 4th of July.

The ice cream maker stalled out part way thru and we pushed it to keep going and finished the batch. Either a year died or bushing wore out.

[Roger Feeley]

Good idea about the ice jam. I had forgotten that that could happen.

i took the motor off and it turned smoothly and easily. Then I ran it for an hour without load. I might be mistaken but I think the sparks were smaller. They were barely visible and were right by the brushes.

i will try another batch soon.

[Roger Feeley]

My ice cream maker died this year after MANY years. The best we can figure is that it is 30+ years old. It was purchased at Montgomery Wards and made ice cream every 4th of July.

The ice cream maker stalled out part way thru and we pushed it to keep going and finished the batch. Either a year died or bushing wore out.

Larry, don’t throw it away if it’s just the motor. I did some research over the weekend and these things are crazy expensive new. I don’t think we paid more than $80 for our White Mountain 25 years ago.

If my motor is beyond repair, I was going to figure a way to drive the dasher with a Milwaukee right angle slow speed drill I have. Then I’ll use a wrench to rotate the canister from time to time. I’m sure not going to pay $250 for a new head. I bet that motor wasn’t $20.

My high priced solution would be to buy a hand crank drive head and adapt a drill. I can get a head to fit for ‘only’ $166. I figure I would run the motor until my two grandsons are husky enough to take over.

[David L Morse]

One possibility is that the ten years in the basement built up a heavy oxide layer on the commutator, causing a high resistance contact to the brushes. The higher resistance would decrease the available torque, causing the symptoms you described.

If that's the case then running the motor as you have may clean up the commutator but you will likely have to disassemble the motor and use some sandpaper to remove the oxide.